Pip's Desire to be a Gentleman Essay

As mentioned before, Pip possess and inability to fully express his feeling about those around him. When he first encounters Estella, he knows that is a physical attraction but Estella’s cold and indifferent actions toward Pip leave him longing for someone he cannot create a true connection with. Furthermore, Estella has the one of the greatest influence on Pip’s identity in the novel once he obtains his expectations and attempts to alter his personality to mimic that of a genteel individual. Pip describes the anguish he feels about his background as “a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home” insinuating that the only way to win Estella over is to disregard his humble beginnings in Kent. Which leads to his desires to become a gentleman in London in hopes that he will be better suited for Estella.

With a beautiful angelic face and a cold-heart Estella serves an important role as Pip’s love interest in the story. Although she is everything that Pip should never want in a friend, that doesn’t stop him from loving her. In the novel, Estella is an important character in both the literal and figurative

Although no mention of past events is made, Pip can tell that Estella had been through misery more intense than that which he himself had gone through almost ten years prior. This misery, Pip believes, has enabled Estella to understand the suffering that he had once felt.

Pip’s loss of ignorance drives his dreams to become a gentleman in the hopes of one day marrying Estella. In addition, Pip becomes so self-conscious of his humble upbringings that he is embarrassed of the home that he lives in. He reflects, “It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home..., and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it

Pip then goes on to address the reader directly and explains that “[t]hat was a memorable day to [him], for it made great changes in [him],” (Dickens 70). After meeting with Estella several times and becoming extremely fond of her, despite her bipolar attitudes towards him, Ms. Havisham suddenly decides to recompense Pip for his time and then tells him that he no longer has to come back to the Satis House. Everyday after this, Pip continuously thinks of Estella and of how he must become a gentleman in order to be at the same level as Estella and eventually marry her. Another character Biddy (whose relationship to Pip is somewhat complicated) begins acting as Pip’s teacher and Pip says “[w]hatever [he] acquired, [he] tried to impart to Joe,” because “[he] wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common.” Pip’s plans to become a well-mannered gentleman to be worthy of high-society and to be worthy of Estella’s affection are two goals or “great expectations” that Pip sets for himself that ultimately carry the plot of the novel along.

Once Pip becomes a gentleman, Estella starts treating his with more respect, and starts calling him ‘Pip’ his real name instead of boy, which she called him when he was a blacksmith. This shows the respect that Estella treats Pip with once he becomes of higher class, compared to the little respect she showed him when he was of the lower class. All Estella cares about is the position in society whereas Biddy doesn’t care about anything but the kindness and personality of that person. Kindness is much more important than class and as a result of Estella’s superficiality and her lack of ability to posses true love she ends up marring Drummel who doesn’t care about anyone but himself, and is abusive. We see that Biddy is rewarded for her kindness by marring Joe, who is a kind and compassionate person. Biddy is a very satisfied person and finds happiness with Joe, where as Estella is never completely satisfied or happy about the way her life turned out. This shows that social class and money cant get you everything that you want in life, including happiness you must earn it.

The evidence that Pip is an insecure, impressionable young boy is that Estella opinions in his coarse hands and thick boots made him break down and cry. He blames his sister for his insecurities because of his sisters’ bringing him up had made him sensitive.

However, when Pip pays his first visit to Satis House, his loyalties began to shift (Kappel 116). Like the prodigal son, Pip becomes discontent with his humble origin and longs for a life of prestige. After only one visit to Miss Havisham, Pip already begins to feel discontent and ashamed. Estella’s prideful and scornful attitude makes him feel inferior. Estella derogatorily

Furthermore, this means that Miss Havishams planned to manipulate Estella to make Pip Fall in love with her and break his heart. Alternatively, Miss Havisham wants to taunt Estella on how to break mens heart and chooses Pip as foundation to break his heart.

Estella violently dehumanizes Pip because she is of a higher class, and she wants to propel her own self-worth. When Estella first meets Pip, she points out the fact that “he calls the knaves jacks,” and that he has “coarse hands” and “thick boots” (Dickens 122). Estella wants to prove that she is superior to Pip, because she is of a higher class. But the only way to do this successfully is to dehumanize Pip, by pointing out things that take away his humanity, like his coarse hands and thick boots. Before he meets Estella, Pip does not share

Pip is content at the forge until pompous Uncle Pumblechook, Joe's uncle, takes him to visit to Satis House, for the first time, where he makes the acquaintance of Miss Havisham and Estella. Satis House is dismal and devoid of life with the exception of Estella, in Pip's eyes. Estella is a pretty, proud, and emotionless girl with who treats Pip badly yet still causes Pip to become completely infatuated with her. The forge now makes Pip ashamed and embarrassed because a coarse, common man could never spend an eternity with such a beauty. Pip is so confused about Estella's insults intertwined with her flirting that all he really knows is that he is ashamed of his social standing. Pip's love for Joe was shadowed by this embarrassment. "…I was ashamed of the dear good fellow—I know I was ashamed of

Most readers are appalled at the cold-hearted and cruel ways of Estella, but any criticism directed at her is largely undeserved. She was simply raised in a controlled environment where she was, in essence, brainwashed by Miss Havisham. Nonetheless, her demeanor might lead one to suspect that she was a girl with a heart of ice. Estella is scornful from the moment she is introduced, when she remarks on Pip's coarse hands and thick boots. However, her beauty soon captivates Pip and she is instilled as the focal point of his thoughts for much of the remainder of the novel. The fact that Pip becomes infatuated with her is also not Estella's fault. By no means is there any evidence that she loved him. She does not flirt with

Great Expectations’ main character, Phillip Pirrip- generally known as Pip- had a rough upbringing as a child. His sister, Mrs. Joe had “brought him up by hand”, after their parents and five brothers had all been laid to rest many years ago. Another character, Herbert Pocket experienced a bizarre childhood, though in a different manner. Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations develops through the novel following Pip, a young “common boy” who grew up in the countryside. As he matured so did his love for a girl of higher class, Estella. However, being a common boy, Pip was not good enough for his Estella, thus once he was given an opportunity to become a gentleman in London he seized it without much hesitation. Charles Dickens’ had his own

The expectations that cause Pip's character to become less likable are those that he develops after being introduced to Miss Havisham and Estella. During his first visit to the Satis House, Estella, who considers herself much too refined and well-bred to

Mister Pip written by Lloyd Jones is a novel recounted by the protagonist Matilda. Set in 1990’s Bougainville, we see Matilda begin to question her Mother’s traditional idea’s about life as a civil war rages between the rebels and the Redskins in her homeland. Mr. Watts or “Pop eye” is given the role teaching the village children, being the only educated, and consequentially, white man left on the island. He begins reading Great Expectations to the children and Matilda finds herself becoming entranced in white civilisation. She gets immersed in the story of the white boy “Pip” living in London in the 1800’s,